[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/megryan-64_2542.jpg]]Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra (born November 19, 1961), better known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer best known for her starring roles in RomanticComedy films such as ''Film/SleeplessInSeattle'', ''Film/WhenHarryMetSally'', and ''Film/YouveGotMail''.

* StarDerailingRole: ''Hanging Up'' is often regarded as this, but the movie that really seems to have pushed Ryan's career off the rails is Jane Campion's 2003 ''In the Cut'', a dark and harrowing erotic thriller in which Ryan played a dowdy professor of English who gets involved with a NY cop played by Creator/MarkRuffalo, notable for an extended and highly explicit sex scene and invoked a generally downbeat tone. The critic David Thomson notes that although the film isn't a masterpiece, it was a brave and imaginative one for Ryan to do, and her subsequent low profile can't be explained by the quality of her acting in it, being more like the movie industry punishing her for wanting to do something completely different from romantic comedies.[[note]]For proof, consider that ''In the Cut'' was one of the movies that got Mark Ruffalo noticed, and its commercial failure didn't seriously harm Jane Campion's career, only Meg Ryan's.[[/note]]* TropeCodifier: For many, Meg Ryan IS the romantic comedy genre in movies.* UnkemptBeauty: Her character's usually sport a somewhat messy hairstyle. This doesn't detract her beauty in the slightest.